Noted sociopath and House Speaker Paul Ryan hasn't even gotten the odious tax bill—a massive redistribution of wealth from the bottom-up—in final form and passed. But he's already making good on the Republican promise to use the gaping hole it blows in the nation's deficit to start in with the granny-starving again.
"We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit," Ryan said during an appearance on Ross Kaminsky's talk radio show. "... Frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements -- because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking."
Ryan said that he believes he has begun convincing President Donald Trump in their private conversations about the need to rein in Medicare, the federal health program that primarily insures the elderly. As a candidate, Trump vowed not to cut spending on Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. (Ryan also suggested congressional Republicans were unlikely to try changing Social Security, because the rules of the Senate forbid changes to the program through reconciliation—the procedure the Senate can use to pass legislation with only 50 votes.)
Got that? The only reason he's not also going after Social Security is because he can't do that with just Republican votes, so he's going to destroy everything else while he can. Smart move, asshole—if you don't want to have to be speaker after next year, that is. Because if you use this massively unpopular tax bill as your excuse for even more unpopular cuts to programs that the American people love, you won't be leader in 2019.
You want class warfare, Mr. Ryan? You're going to get it.